If you go ...

Don’t expect ruby-red walls and the sounds of sitar music when you walk into Coriander, a new Indian restaurant on Larchmont Avenue in Larchmont.

While there are certainly some traditional touches in the décor of this 4-month-old restaurant — Rajasthani puppets in the corner, for example, and decorative lanterns that command the front entrance — this restaurant offers a fresher, more contemporary take on what many expect from a conventional Indian restaurant.

“The entire concept was to get away from the drab, typical, and easy-to-find haute cuisine of your typical Indian-style restaurant, and evolve the food and the ambiance to its natural next step,” says owner Shawn Nagpal, 24, a native Indian and New Rochelle resident whose father owned Rangoli for 13 years. So he’s combining contemporary cooking techniques and plating while staying true to traditional recipes and tastes.

The menu includes appetizers such as shrimp Rangoli, which are seared and served with garlic, mustard seed, curry leaves and a tomato-cream sauce; and entrees such as chicken korma, which is braised and served with a creamy sauce of ground almonds, cashews, tomato and onion. There are breads, too, like naan, paratha and kulcha.

Nagpal focuses on the ayurvedic aspect of food, which relies on natural remedies and combinations of such spices as turmeric, ginger and fennel seeds to maintain a healthy body and mind. There is nothing processed here — all spices are personally ground in the kitchen — and the focus is on seasonal cuisine, albeit with a Northern Indian influence.

He chose the name Coriander because the spice — the seed of the cilantro — is used a lot in the kitchen, and for its pleasing cadence. The restaurant remains a bit of a family business, with his father, Sam Nagpal, as chef, and his younger sister and mother occasionally serving as hosts.

As for why he decided to open in Larchmont, Nagpal, who worked for years at the Verizon store in town, says he had his eye on locations in the area for a long time. “There’s nothing like this here,” he says. “Plus, I believe Larchmont is going to be the next restaurant town.”